Delhi gangrape: police wants bus owner as witness

Delhi police on Tuesday approached a special court in New Delhi seeking its permission to call the owner of the bus, in which a 23-year-old girl was gangraped by six accused on December 16, as a prosecution witness in the case.

Special public prosecutor Dayan Krishnan, in his plea before additional sessions judge Yogesh Khanna, sought to call as witness Dinesh Yadav, owner of the bus in which the victim's male friend was also assaulted with an iron rod and later thrown on a road in south Delhi.

Besides Yadav, the prosecutor has also sought the court's permission to call Ramadhar, a carpenter who was allegedly robbed by the six after luring him into the bus.

"On review of the evidence, it is submitted that Dinesh Yadav..., the owner of the bus and the employer of accused Ram Singh (since deceased) as well as Ramadhar who is not a cited witness but is a complainant..., and a purported victim of the same accused persons, are required to be summoned as it is in our respectful submissions that not summoning them may be perceived as being unfair to the accused," Krishnan said.

He further said that in the interest of justice and fair trial, Yadav and Ramadhar be summoned as a witness.

The prosecution's move was, however, opposed by the counsel for accused Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh - who are facing trial for gangrape and murder of the victim, besides various sections under IPC.

According to the police, on the night of the incident, a female physiotherapy intern was beaten and gangraped in a bus in which she was travelling with her male companion, a software engineer.

There were six others in the bus, including the driver, all of whom had raped the girl, it said. The victim died of her injuries 13 days later while undergoing emergency treatment in Singapore.

During the trial, Ram Singh, was found dead in Tihar jail in March and proceedings against him stand abated. The sixth accused, a juvenile is facing the inquiry before the juvenile justice board in New Delhi.

During the day's proceedings, the court recorded the statement of a woman investigating officer who had initially probed the case.

The cross examination of the officer will continue on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the counsel for Mukesh told the court that the case file was stolen from his car on June 30.